[Collection Title] - The Phillips Collection

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CURATORIAL RECORDS IN THE PHILLIPS COLLECTIONARCHIVESINTRODUCTORY INFORMATIONCollection Title: Renoir to Rothko: The Eye of Duncan Phillips; exhibition recordsAuthor/Creator: The Phillips Collection Curatorial Department. Eliza E. Rathbone, ChiefCurator, and Elizabeth (Beth) Hutton Turner, CuratorSize: 1.25 linear feet; 3 document boxesBulk Dates: 1998-2000Inclusive Dates: 1984-2002Repository: The Phillips Collection ArchivesINFORMATION FOR USERS OF THE COLLECTIONRestrictions: The collection contains restricted materials. Please contact Karen Schneider,Librarian, with any questions regarding access.Handling Requirements: Care should be taken when handling the audio diskette housed inBox 1, Folder 14; for usage of this CD, see head librarian. The oversized preliminary floorplan/elevation drawing housed in Box 2, Folder 14, must be carefully unfolded for viewing.Preferred Citation: The Phillips Collection Archives, Washington, D.C.Publication and Reproduction Rights: See Karen Schneider, Librarian, for furtherinformation and to obtain required forms.ABSTRACTRenoir to Rothko: The Eye of Duncan Phillips (1999-2000) exhibition records contain materialscreated and collected by the Curatorial Department, The Phillips Collection, during the courseof organizing the exhibition. Included are research, catalogue, and exhibition planning files thatdocument the preparation and logistics for the show.HISTORICAL NOTELaughlin Phillips (1924-2010), a founder of Washingtonian magazine, succeeded his motherMarjorie Phillips to become director of The Phillips Collection in 1972, a tenure that spannedtwo decades from 1972-1992. By the time that Laughlin sold his magazine in 1979, America‟sfirst museum of modern art was beginning to show the common problems that beset museums.The museum that founder Duncan Phillips created was in need of modernization. In the 1980sthe museum underwent a period of intense growth and activity led by Laughlin Phillips, whooversaw the collection‟s remarkable transformation from a home filled with paintings to aprofessional museum.2
As director, Laughlin Phillips established a research office headed by Martha Carey and herassistant Sarah Martin. A laborious inventory was conducted by staff from 1983 to 1985, withthe resulting 1985 book The Phillips Collection: A Summary Catalogue, the first publication to listall artworks in the permanent collection. Their efforts were succeeded by research curatorErika Passantino, who worked with a research team to prepare a larger scholarly catalogue ofthe collection that would not only provide full documentation of its most important holdingsbut serve as an interpretive analysis of Duncan Phillips‟s importance as a writer, collector, andinfluence on the cultural history of modernism in America.As the 21 st century approached, these efforts inspired the exhibition that presented a newcontextual understanding of Duncan Phillips and his role in the art world: Renoir to Rothko: TheEye of Duncan Phillips and the scholarly catalogue that was published entitled The Eye of DuncanPhillips: A Collection in the Making.SCOPE AND CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTIONCuratorial records in this record group document the research, planning, and activities of stafffrom 1998 to 2000 for the exhibition entitled Renoir to Rothko: The Eye of Duncan Phillips. Builtupon the knowledge gained from two decades of research and study of the permanentcollection, Renoir to Rothko: The Eye of Duncan Phillips, was the most comprehensive andambitious exhibition in the history of The Phillips Collection. The exhibition filled the entiremuseum with 350 works drawn from the 2,500 American and European paintings, sculptures,and works on paper in the permanent collection, presented in refurbished galleries in the 1897Georgian Revival house and the Goh Annex. Arranged chronologically by date of acquisition(and thematically), it explored milestones in Phillips‟s collecting and the evolution of hisaesthetic taste over a period of fifty years, from his early purchases in 1916 until his death in1966. Phillips‟s correspondence, journals, manuscripts, and ledgers, along with historicalphotographs were displayed in archival cases to amplify exhibition content.Organized by The Phillips Collection, the show opened at the museum on September 25, 1999,and remained on view through January 23, 2000. The exhibition was organized by Eliza E.Rathbone, Chief Curator, and Beth Turner, Curator, under the directorship of Jay Gates. Ledby Rathbone and Turner, the entire curatorial staff of The Phillips Collection contributed to theexhibition, its installation, presentation, archival materials, and audio guide. Corporatesponsorship for the exhibition came from Merrill Lynch. The show did not travel.The exhibition was scheduled to coincide with the September 1999 completion date of thelavish catalogue entitled The Eye of Duncan Phillips: A Collection in the Making, published by ThePhillips Collection in association with Yale University Press. Edited by Erika D. Passantino, thebook is both a selected survey of the major European and American works in The PhillipsCollection and a study in the development of Duncan Phillips as critic, collector, and patron.Records in this collection consist mostly of the research and exhibition planning files of chiefcurator Eliza Rathbone, and curator Beth Turner, as well as a few documents related to the3
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[Collection Title] - The Phillips Collection

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